The last step of an immigrant’s journey to the United States comes long after that person has gone, when their descendants finally understand the magnitude of what they did.
On Tuesday, Norway House, the cultural and event center in the Minneapolis Phillips neighborhood that’s still a first home for many immigrants, is expanding with an exhibit and research space called the Saga Center to explore connections between Americans and Norwegians.
The next king of Norway, H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon, will be on hand to dedicate the new center, three years after his mother, Queen Sonja, visited it. The prince will then preside at a business conference with executives from Medtronic and other Minnesota companies with operations in Norway and Europe.
Today, the proportion of foreign-born Americans has surpassed that of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when immigration from Norway and other parts of Europe peaked. That proportion hit a record high of 15.8% in January, according to Pew Research.
At places dedicated to recognition of past migrations, it’s easy to see how the same forces that have driven immigration throughout Minnesota’s history remain unchanged.
The poor and hungry from somewhere come to America, settle near each other here, go to school and to work and, with each generation, get richer, gain political power, intermarry and move. In time, their descendants look back with wonder at those who took those first, hardest steps.
In addition to Norway House, the looking back happens at the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery, Danish American Center, Eloise and Elliot Kaplan Family Jewish History Center, American Swedish Institute and the Somali Museum, all in Minneapolis. There’s also the Germanic-American Institute and Hmong Cultural Center Museum in St. Paul and the Minnesota Genealogical Society in Mendota Heights.
Tucked inside the new Saga Center at Norway House is the Haugo Bibliotek, a library of Norwegian genealogical materials and computer workstations. They include country books, or bygdebøker, and church records listing families over centuries. Those records are a key reason that people of Norwegian heritage like me are able to trace their family history back generations.
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